Home Insurance – The Costs for New Home Owners

January 14, 2018

When looking for a new home, people are often looking for their last home, in the sense that they are making a purchase on where they have chosen to settle. That is the main reason why home insurance is not an extraneous purchase, but rather a necessity. Despite the added costs that it will bring, there are no ways around proper protection for one’s home and personal property. There are, however, many steps to check before settling on an offer.

One of the first items on the agenda is to compare deductibles. The deductible is the total amount of payment each claim will require you to pay directly out of pocket before the insurance provider begins paying any expenses. In other words, it is a deposit on the insurance itself. Prior to purchasing your home insurance, take the time to compare deductibles, keeping mind that a higher deductible will not necessarily mean more coverage.

More often than not, your lender will make sure you are covering at least the amount of your mortgage insurance costs and will advise that you pay more for your insurance. This is just to make sure that the customer isn’t paying directly out of their pocket if damage does occur, ultimately undermining the original function of the insurance and causing added financial damage.

When choosing home insurance you are given two options, the first falling under the name Replacement Costs. This means that if the unthinkable does occur the price offered will be in relation to the cost it would take to replace the loss. For example, in the case of a fire, the replacement cost would be the total amount of materials in quantity and quality it would take to rebuild the home to its pre-damage state. This does also takes into account the depreciation of the home over time and doesn’t deduct for it. Actual Cash Value, which is the second method, does, in fact, take depreciation into account and you pay a deductible on the items lost. In this case, while the insurance may be more reasonable, if disaster does strike the reparations and aid will also be more reserved.

Home insurance isn’t necessarily only applicable to homeowners, and there are packages available if you are renting as well. While your landlord will have insurance in place to protect the actual building in the case of fire or disaster, the tenant is responsible for purchasing insurance to cover their own personal belongings, if there is a robbery for example, and in some cases liability insurance is even recommended in lieu of someone injuring themselves in the tenants apartment.